Feeding Habits

Conservation Status

Taxonomie

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Beluga whales are easy to spot, thanks to their white colour, large size and bulging forehead. At birth these pale whales aren’t white at all – they’re slate grey, and it can take up to eight years to develop their distinct white colour. They are unique among whales because they have very flexible necks and can move their head in almost any direction, separately from their body. They are also known as “sea canaries” because they are a chatty species. They are able to create such a wide variety of sounds due to the tissue in their large, bulbous forehead, called a melon, which is used to create and amplify sounds in the marine environment. The noises belugas make are both to communicate with their pod as well as to navigate. Belugas use echolocation to navigate in the dark waters of the Arctic Ocean.

In the wild, belugas can live for up to 75 years, reaching sexual maturity between eight to 14 years old for females and 12 to 14 years old for males. Although they reach sexual maturity at a fairly young age, they only breed once about every three years – in the late spring between April and June. After a gestation period of about 14 and a half months, the female will give birth to one calf around July or August.

Throughout their life, they travel together in groups called ‘pods’, which typically range from two to 10 whales, however it is not uncommon to see larger pods. Most pods exhibit migratory behaviour, moving further south or out into open waters in the fall, when the ice starts forming closer to shore, before returning to coastal, summer areas for feeding, nursing young and moulting/shedding their skin. The only Canadian population of belugas that doesn’t appear to migrate significant distances is the St. Lawrence Estuary population.